Susan Abram

Hospitals around the country have been increasingly using homeless navigators to help place indigent men and women into treatments centers or housing after discharge, including this first-of-its-kind, two-year-old pilot program from Kaiser Permanente.

A provision under the Affordable Care Act allows Medicare to penalize hospitals for high readmission rates within 30 days of discharge, particularly among patients with heart attacks, heart failure or pneumonia. So hospitals near and far have begun various initiatives.

Outreach workers from health clinics have spent the last three years in search of 390,000 Los Angeles County residents who are uninsured and can qualify for free health insurance.

The Affordable Care Act is stirring up confusion and anger among the patients who visit a Los Angeles clinic dedicated to serving urban-based Native Americans. That's because President Barack Obama's reform has raised a painful question: which tribes get free health care and which have to pay?

The makers of popular drugs like Advair, Cymbalta, Viagra and Zoloft have physicians, psychiatrists, and medical school faculty members across California on their payrolls. Does this influence prescribing patterns?